According to an article in today's TIMES by Dalya Alberge.
"One of the century'd greatest tenors made a scathing attack yesterday on
ministers, trustees ann senior management who have allowed the Royal Opera
House to teeter on the brink of disaster.
Jon Vickers, 712, the Canadian-born singer who has been described
as one of the giants of postwar opera and sang at Covent Garden for years,
was in London to give a public interview at the Barbican on SDunday.
Yesterday he described events at Covent Garden as a farce.
He called for the resignation of those who had allowed musicians,
singers, dancers and technicians to suffer. As management and staff
continued to negotiate on cost-cutting measures until this afternoon's
board meeting, he said the decision-makers were "stupid and ignorant".
[Not one to mince words, Jon Vickers!]
He was outraged by how people in the company were being treated;
"Whoever has the power to devastate this company - pouring more and more
millions into bricks and mortar rather than people - has no concept of
what art is about. What has happened to our arts if we have a situation
where the human being doesn't count?"
He could not comprehend how 214 million pounds could be spent on
redevelopment while performers were asked to choose betwen pay cuts or
redundancy. He dismissed the suggestion that the company could be
disbanded and reassembled when the building re-opened next year. He said,
"You have to have a unifying spirit in an opera house".
He described American reaction to the crisis: "I hate to tell you
this, but they're laughing at you......They have just ridiculed what's
been allowed to happen to Covent Garden. If an attempt was made to close
down the Met, there'd be riots."
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Well, will they listen to Vickers, do you think? They didn't listen to
Haitink, after all...or anyone else!
Dr. Jane Susanna ENNIS
[log in to unmask]http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/9957/